The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Poinsettia plant, botanically known as Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd., and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name `Duespotpink`. The new cultivar is being marketed under the name `Spotlight Pink`.
The new cultivar is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the inventor in Rheinberg, Germany. The objective of the breeding program was to develop freely branching poinsettia varieties with excellent postproduction longevity.
The new cultivar is a naturally-occurring mutation of the commercial cultivar `HWD Spotlight`, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,854. The new cultivar was discovered and selected by the inventor 1995 in a controlled environment in Rheinberg, Germany, as a single flowering plant among a population of plants of the parent cultivar `HWD Spotlight`. The new cultivar consistently formed inflorescences with pink bracts compared to the red-colored bracts of plants of the cultivar `HWD Spotlight`.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings taken at Rheinberg, Germany, has shown that the unique features of this new Poinsettia are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.